One problem with “What Would Jesus Do?” is that it doesn’t normally lead to ditching one’s parents while on pilgrimage, or flipping over tables. It usually simply means “What do I think the right thing to do is?” and Jesus is made to conform to that, rather than vice versa. The Babylon Bee (HT Ian Paul) offered this bit of satire that makes the point: Progressive Criticizes Jesus For Not Being Very Christlike SEATTLE, WA—After reading several chapters from the gospels... Read more
Here is video of Garth Knox’s piece “Jonah and the Whale” for viola and tuba: From the composer’s website: Jonah and the Whale For viola and tuba Written for Gérard Buquet, tubist and friend. The idea came to me to write a piece for the seemingly outrageous combination of viola and tuba based on the story of Jonah and the Whale as told in Moby Dick by Hermann Melville. It struck me that the viola could portray the character of... Read more
The infographic below (from Work of the World) highlights many of the positive aspects of living in another culture. I never cease to recommend that students pursue this sort of experience, since I know how transformative it was for my own life. I have sometimes wondered whether Jesus had a cross-cultural experience of some sort – or whether his experience of life in Galilee near Sepphoris provided something similar. His openness towards others and ability to look critically at his own... Read more
I can see why the discussion arose about whether one can mention God on Star Trek. When they seem to be lost on a desert world, Michael Burnham (Number One) says “Ye of little faith.” And discovering a Klingon beacon, Commander Burnham talks about sculpture as “sacred.” Such elements, voiced by someone who was raised in a Vulcan environment, are fully in keeping with the original series’ willingness to make room for Vulcan spirituality and the occasional passing reference to Christianity. This... Read more
Emma Higgs continues her fantastic series, “Faith in the Fog.” Here is an excerpt: We Christians tend to cling to our beliefs because they provide a reassuring framework in which everything is categorised and understood. But in doing so we risk losing the very heart of Jesus himself, who insisted upon disrupting our ideological constructs, defying our expectations and merging our categories. This does not sit well with us. We modern, post-enlightenment folk like to have control; to have things... Read more
You may or may not be surprised to learn that I still think about the television series LOST from time to time. It seems to happen often when I am mowing my lawn. I think it is because, during the show’s six seasons, I would regularly spend the time that I was mowing the lawn pondering the show’s mysteries and trying to figure out what on earth was going on. Recently (yes, while mowing grass) it struck me that I... Read more
Good morning, and welcome to yet another end of the world. As you have probably heard, the end of the world has been predicted as occurring today, as has been done so many times before. This time the one offering the prediction is a man named David Meade, and it involves the non-existent planet Nibiru. I was pleased when Randal Rauser blogged a while back about the pamphlet “88 Reasons Why The Rapture Will Be In 1988.” I encountered that... Read more
The phrase in the meme – “You can tell a lot about a person by the company they keep working for” – is inspired by a similar quip shared by Horace Jeffery Hodges on the blog Gypsy Scholarship. I really loved the way his mind worked, starting with the phrase “you can tell a lot about someone by the company they keep” and then seeing how a sting could be added to its tail by continuing the sentence. In making the meme, I... Read more
I am delighted to circulate the poster below, to help spread the word about an exciting session at AAR/SBL this year, with a strong digital humanities focus, and co-sponsored by several program units within both the American Academy of Religion and the Society of Biblical Literature: This promises to be a fantastic session as far as the content is concerned – it will cover aspects of the technology used to recover texts that have been erased from reused parchment and other... Read more
I made a Star Trek reference at last night’s public lecture, in response to a question about whether it was self-defeating or self-contradictory to be intolerant of intolerance. But not wanting to lose an audience that might or might not have appreciated the analogy, I held back, and in the end I didn’t feel that I made the point as clearly as I could have, and perhaps should have. But there is always the possibility of expanding on the point... Read more
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